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Today's Route Stats:

   Distance:  8.0 miles

   Elevation Gain:  1800  feet

   Elevation Loss:  200 feet

Today was supposed to be short and easy.  Originally I had planned to camp near Lower Jumpup Spring.  But camping at Mountain Sheep Spring added a lot of mileage that we didn't account for.  The distance from the junction of the Ranger Trail and the Jumpup-Nail trail is only 4.1 miles.  We failed to account for all the miles between Mountain Sheep Spring and the trail junction.  We ended up having to hike eight miles.  The route out to Sowats Point was only about 4.6 miles.  It would have been a bit shorter to hike up Jumpup and the ladder, but the ladder takes a up a lot of time.  But the hike along the Jumpup-Nail Trail between Sowats and Jumpup Canyons was gorgeous and worth the extra effort.  The problem was that Jay and Ben are much faster hikers than the rest of us, and because they had a much shorter hike, they ended having to wait a couple of hours for us at the Jumpup Trailhead. 

After the hike, Ben, Rich and I drove to Kanab and ate an early dinner at Escobar's Mexican Restaurant.  I then drove them to Saint George, where Ben and Rich had motel reservations.  I had a reservation in Page, but I was just too tired to drive all the way.  So I ended up staying in Saint George.